Tuesday, June 19, 2007

While recently promo-ing his The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro said he had one particular desire over all: to do two more movies with Martin Scorsese and make it an even 10 they did together. I can report that No. 9 is underway. De Niro has long had lined up The Winter of Frankie Machine, based on the book about a retired hit man, and now I'm told that Scorsese is set to direct it for Paramount under his deal there. I understand the pic's name has been shortened to just Frankie Machine. There's no announcement yet, but I've heard this from a good source. Crime writer Don Winslow wrote the book after growing up with the children of his neighborhood Mafia bosses, so he understood the criminal mind behind the hit man who's hounded out of a respectable retirement as the target of a hit himself. Despite his own history of brutality, the protagonist is actually quite likable -- which explains why the manuscript was snapped up by De Niro even before it was published. Back in March, Variety reported that already Ocean's Thirteen screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien were writing the screenplay for De Niro. Bobby has talked before how he and Marty have started some projects over the years only to get distracted, and how they were both "anxiously waiting" to come up with something. For the record, here are their 8 pics together: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York New York, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and Casino. I hear Scorsese will get started right after his Rolling Stones project. Another mob movie: what could be better?